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Reminds me of a morning standby on either the Arcadia or the Oronsay(Throttles were similar) I was on the Starboard Throttles going at half Ahead, The Leckie, Chief, Second and third were talking at the engine room desk when I hear/felt a clang at my feet, I looked down and saw a bronze pin about 4 inches long 3/4 in diameter. I looked up and saw the universal joint for the Ahead throttle lying drunkenly off its normal alignement. I looked up and down and realised where the pin had come from. I started jumping up and down waving my arms and got the attention of the seniors. They soon recognised the situation and sprang into action. Someone informed the bridge of the loss of control of the starboard engine and the others soon got the errant pin back into position the leckie hammering it with his 1/4 pound "toffee" hammer.
The situation gave me a bit of a warm glow of pride that we as a team rectified a situation that could have been catastrophic and that all the rest of the crew and passengers were blissfully unaware,
IanB

I am reminded of the occasion on Chusan when we were tied up alongside in Messina, Sicily. One hour before sailing, the engineer on watch opened up the bulkhead stops to begin the warm-through routine. What he didn't know was that the port engine throttle was wide open! Before anyone knew what was happening, the ship started ahead, breaking all the ropes bar one. That one rope yanked a bollard out of the quay and the bollard swung down and smashed into a forward crew cabin. The gangway, up which passengers were ascending, began to fall away and a quick-thinking quartermaster grabbed an elderly lady, pulling her to safety just before the gangway fell into the sea. The chief engineer and captain stood on the quay watching Chusan steam away at 4 knots. I was sat in my cabin and saw the horizon moving up and down past my porthole, causing me some concern. The engineers down below managed to stop the engine and tug-boats were sent out to rescue us. The crew cabin had to be filled with concrete to seal it up.

Where are you from: Ipswich originally, now Chandlers Ford, Hampshire.

I was the 4th on watch in the boiler room on the day that Chusan ran away.
What happen to my memory was that work had being carried on the main steam line to the turbines so the bulkhead stops to the boiler room had been shut and the throttle valve cracked (may be a little too much) to drain the line.
At the end of the work the stop valve was to be opened, with great difficulty.
Meanwhile in the boiler room the Tindal started to scream that the boiler pressure was dropping, so the fuel oil pressure was wound up and more burners put into the furnaces to try and keep the pressure up.I had wondered what had happened was it a blown boiler tube, no noise I could not leave the boiler room to find out.
By now the throttle valve had been shut thus causing the steam pressure to rise extremely fast and lift all the safety valves on the boilers that cost me a case of yellow perils.
In the meantime the ER BR telegraph rang to advise me that you are making black smoke !!